Glossary#

Source#

A location that holds data with a certain structure, organized into one or more resources.

• If endpoints in an API are the resources, then the API is the source.
• If tabs in a spreadsheet are the resources, then the spreadsheet is the source.
• If tables in a database are the resources, then the database is the source.

Within this documentation, source also refers to the software component (i.e., a Python function)
that extracts data from the source location using one or more resource components.

Resource#

A logical grouping of data within a data source, typically holding data of similar structure and
origin.

• If the source is an API, then a resource is an endpoint in that API.
• If the source is a spreadsheet, then a resource is a tab in that spreadsheet.
• If the source is a database, then a resource is a table in that database.

Within this documentation, resource also refers to the software component (i.e., a Python function)
that extracts the data from the source location.

Destination#

The data store where data from the source is loaded (e.g., Google BigQuery).

Pipeline#

Moves the data from the source to the destination, according to instructions provided in the schema
(i.e., extracting, normalizing, and loading the data).

Verified source#

A Python module distributed with dlt init that allows creating pipelines that extract data from a
particular Source. Such a module is intended to be published in order for others to use it to
build pipelines.

A source must be published to become "verified," which means that it has tests, test data,
demonstration scripts, documentation, and the dataset produced was reviewed by a data engineer.

Schema#

Describes the structure of normalized data (e.g., unpacked tables, column types, etc.) and provides
instructions on how the data should be processed and loaded (i.e., it tells dlt about the content
of the data and how to load it into the destination).

Config#

A set of values that are passed to the pipeline at runtime (e.g., to change its behavior locally vs.
in production).

Credentials#

A subset of configuration whose elements are kept secret and never shared in plain text.